Part 15

[Sidenote: Pausanias in Bœoticis. c. +xix.+]

And again, in the fable of Lælaps, the far-famed “grewnd” of Bœotia;

[Sidenote: Ovid. Metam. L. +vii.+ vs. 781.]

Tollor eo capioque novi spectacula cursûs: Quà modò deprendi, modò se subducere ab ipso Vulnere visa fera est: nec limite callida recto, In spatiumque fugit; sed decipit ora sequentis, Et redit in gyrum, ne sit suus impetus hosti. Imminet hic, sequiturque parem: similisque tenenti Non tenet, et vacuos exercet in aëra morsus.

[Sidenote: Golding’s Ovid’s Metam. Seventh booke.]

I gat me to the knap Of this same hill, and there beheld of this strange course the hap, In which the beaste seemes one while caught, and ere a man would thinke, Doth quickely give the grewnd the slip, and from his biting shrinke, And like a wilie foxe he runs not forth directly out, Nor makes a winlas over all the champion fields about, But doubling and indenting still avoydes his enmies lips, And turning short, as swift about as spinning wheele he wips, To disappoint the snatch. The grewnd pursuing at a inch Doth cote him, never loosing ground; but likely still to pinch, Is at the sudden shifted off: continually he snatches In vaine: for nothing in his mouth save onely aire he catches.

Nor will the reader of modern Cynegetica forget the vivid sketch of Pterelas’s course by the Latin poet of Venusium:

[Sidenote: J. Darcii Venusini Canes.]

Ocyùs insequitur Pterelas, cursuque citato Intervalla facit lati decrescere campi. Jam propior propiorque micat, jam captat hianti Summa pedum rostro, jam terga fugacia stringit. Ille pavet, flexoque obliquat tramite cursus, Et dubiâ trepidans formidine, jamque teneri Se putat, et rursùm tangentis ab ore recedit, Fataque momento sibi prorogat, æmula donec Rostra levis mergat miserando in corpore victor, Fulmineus victor, gemino cui tramite lumbos Spina subit graciles, &c.

The many portraits of these classical and semi-classical Cynegetica will be fitly closed with the following elegiac verses on a Canis Venatrix, whose characteristic attributes, pathetically written on a monumental stone by an unknown hand, but at once applied by us to the Celtic type, exemplify in the entombed a few of the anecdotes of Arrian’s Hormé:

Epitaphium Canis Venatricis.

[Sidenote: Poetæ Latini Minores. Wernsdorf. Tom. +i.+ p. 121.]

Gallia me genuit, nomen mihi divitis undæ Concha dedit, formæ nominis aptus honos. Docta per incertas audax discurrere silvas, Collibus hirsutas atque agitare feras. Non gravibus vinclis unquam consueta teneri, Verbera nec niveo corpore sæva pati. Molli namque sinu domini dominæque jacebam, Et noram in strato lassa cubare toro. Et plus, quam licuit muto, canis ore loquebar, Nulli latratus pertimuere meos. Et jam fata subî, partu jactata sinistro, Quam nunc sub parvo marmore terra teget.

The early history of the greyhound is confounded with the Epirote, as if they had a common lineage—a mistake which has arisen from their being considered equally of Grecian origin—whereas the greyhound has no connexion with ancient Greece. Fable, however, assigns them a common descent from the Lælaps of Bœotia,—from whom also sprung other dogs of classic fame. The history of this celebrated hound, and the lineage and geographical distribution of his descendants, are particularized in the Cynegeticon of Bargæus:

[Sidenote: P. A. Bargæi Cyneget. L. +v.+]

Illum autem specie, præstantem animisque superbum Cynthia dilectæ dederat pro munere Nymphæ: Ipsaque mox juveni Æolidæ: genialia postquam Fulcra tori, et dulceis iterùm conjunxit amores, Jucundumque sinu fovit complexa maritum. Cujus ope innumeras sylvis prædatus, et agris Ille feras, ne tanta olim sublata periret Aut morte, aut sterili mox accedente senectâ, Et caderet simul extincto cum Lælape virtus: Subjecitque canem, sobolemque è matre recepit Optatam, Cretæque ultro concessit habendam. Inde autem vobis auctâ jam prole nepotes Allatos Graiæ primùm accepistis Amyclæ, Tempore quo gemini fidissima pectora fratres Nunc lepores canibus, cursu nunc dorcadas acreis, Et nunc Tænario cervas in littore agebant; Æripedes cervas, quibus haud velocior unquam Evolat Æoliis aquilo dimissus ab antris. Nec fuit ipsa diu tam magni muneris expers Epirus. Miscere genus monstravit: at ollis Ingentes animi, solersque industria crevit.

[Sidenote: De Venatione. c. +iii.+]

[Sidenote: J. Vlitii Venat. Novant.]

[Sidenote: Encyc. Méthod. Les chasses. p. 290.]

Arrian, from whose Manual of Coursing I purposely abstain to quote at length, because the reader can refer to my translation with little trouble, calls the greyhound by the barbarous title of οὐέρτραγος κύων, expressly stating that he is so denominated in the Celtic tongue, not from any particular people, like the Cretan, Carian, and Spartan hounds, but from his quality of speed, as some of the Cretans are distinguished by certain peculiarities of character. Here, however, our author’s ignorance of the Celtic language has led him into an error. Being unable, probably, to explain a term which had reached him in a corrupt form, he falsely derived it from the dog’s most characteristic property, ἀπὸ τῆς ὠκύτητος: whereas in truth it is compounded of Velt, a plain or open country, the “arvum vacuum” of Ovid, and racha, a hound of chase; and consequently signifies a champaign-dog, un lévrier de plaine, a hound adapted for coursing over an open country.

The Vertagus, or Tumbler, (“quòd se, dum prædatur, vertat,” &c.) I scarce need observe, has no affinity whatever with the οὐέρτραγος κύων of Arrian. By Dr. Caius, in his Libellus de Canibus Britannicis, he is fully described; nor are his tricks forgotten by the Latin poet of Caen;

[Sidenote: Jac. Savary Alb. Dianæ Leporicidæ. p. 5.]

Seque volutantes, ludisque cuniculum amicis Fallentes, prædæ colludentesque futuræ, Informat catulos Angli solertia nanos.

The files of classical antiquity afford no counterpart to the British Tumbler, unless it be in the Vertagus of Martial—a dog already allotted to the Celtic family, as, in some copies of the epigrammatist, written Vertragus.

[Sidenote: Gloss. Arch. p. 113.]

[Sidenote: De bello Gallico. L. +iv.+ 12.]

[Sidenote: Symmachi Epist. L. +ii.+ Ep. 77.]

It remains for me to mention the distinctions which have been made by naturalists in the greyhound type of our own islands, and to endeavour to trace its connexion with Gallia Celtica. The modern sub-varieties of our systematic writers on natural history are named from the countries in which the respective sorts most abound, English, Scotch, and Irish greyhounds. Spelman, whose authority is entitled to weight, in his remarks “De Canibus Veterum,” speaking of the “Leporarius levipes, qui ex visu prædam appetit arripitque, a greyhound, Ovidio Canis Gallicus,” subjoins, “sed propriè magìs Britannicus;” as if he deemed him of British origin, a native of our isle, like the inhabitants of the interior mentioned by Cæsar, “quos natos in insulâ ipsâ, memoriâ proditum dicunt;”—but he cites no testimony in support of his opinion. I do not believe either of the three sub-varieties of the dog in question indigenous of Great Britain; but rather that all our insular sorts originally sprang from the Celtic Vertragus:—the probability of which is supported by the history of the distribution of the Celts themselves, and the name under which the dogs were sent by Flavian to his brother Symmachus at Rome. The Scots, a Celtic tribe, previously inhabiting some part of Western Europe, emigrated into Ireland during the third century, and gave to that, isle, pro tempore, the name of Scotland. Thence they spread over the Western islands, and took possession of the neighbouring district of Argyle, the land of the Gael or Gaul—giving eventually their name to the Northern part of Britain generally. May we not suppose the Irish and Scotch greyhounds to have been primevally derived from the same Celtic stock, accompanying these emigrants of Celtic Europe to Ireland, and thence to Scotland; in one or other of which territories they received the name of Canes Scotici, from the Scotish emigrants of Celtica, who accompanied them? and may not the English greyhound, improved in speed by careful management and judicious breeding, as his master increased in civilization and became more reclaimed, be derived, through such intermediate links, from the same parent source? The coarser varieties of the North, and of the sister Isle, are rarely seen in South Britain; and though at first closely connected with the Celt, and amongst his earliest descendants, are now considered farther removed from the genuine type of Celtica, the οὐέρτραγος κύων of the Greek manual, in consequence of commixture with the canes bellicosi and sagaces.

[Sidenote: Nemesian. Cyneget. vs. 124.]

The strongest evidence we possess of the greyhound’s existence in Britain, in the reigns of Carus, his sons, and Diocletian, is afforded by the Cynegeticon of the African poet. For although I deny that this hound can be entitled to the local epithet Britannicus, bestowed on him by Spelman, to the superseding his usual titles, I readily grant, at the same time, that the exported veloces of Britain, of the Cynegeticon alluded to, were greyhounds. Nemesian must be considered almost entirely the poet of the pedibus celeres;—at least, in that portion of his hunting-poem which has survived the ravages of time. But the usual terms by which the greyhound is designated in Ovid, Gratius, Martial, and Arrian, are no where found in the poet of Carthage; in place of which invariably occur the terms catuli veloces. That by these terms the latter author intends hounds of the Celtic type, I have, on a careful re-perusal of his work, not the least doubt; though, when writing the note to the Preface, p. 11, I was inclined to view the veloces, particularly specified by Nemesian as of British export, as nimble harriers, rather than genuine greyhounds; and did not in consequence adduce the passage alluded to, when there endeavouring to fix the period of the latter’s introduction into Britain. Indeed, J. Vlitius, himself sceptical at first as to the nature of these swift-footed hounds, (see his remarks on Nemesian vs. 124.,) comes round to my conclusion in the progress of his annotations, (see his notes on vs. 233.). Nearly the whole of Nemesian’s instructions have reference to canes cursores, beginning with their exportation from our own island—where, doubtless, they had been previously imported from Gaul—

[Sidenote: Nemesian. Cyneget. vs. 124.]

divisa Britannia mittit Veloces, nostrique orbis venatibus aptos;

and pursuing the subject in the departments of breeding, feeding, and entering of puppies to their game, (his remarks on these subjects being essentially applicable to hounds of the Celtic type,) he adds,

[Sidenote: Nemesian. Cyneg. vs. 200.]

Sic tibi veloces catulos reparare memento Semper, et in parvos iterùm protendere curas;

and then speaking of Tuscan dogs of scent, sagacious Inductores, he contrasts their form with that of the hounds in question,

[Sidenote: Ejusdem vs. 230.]

Quin et Tuscorum non est extrema voluptas Sæpè canum: sit forma illis licèt obsita villo, Dissimilesque habeant catulis velocibus artus....

at which point he suddenly arrests his pen, and changes his subject, deferring till a subsequent part of his poem, unfortunately lost, the qualities of this keen-nosed tribe of hounds,

[Sidenote: Ejusdem vs. 235.]

Horum animos, moresque simul, naresque sagaces Mox referam: nunc omnis adhuc narranda supellex Venandi, cultusque mihi dicendus equorum.

The latter subjects completed, he again takes up the catuli veloces, and slips them on the sporting field, at the period of the year usual with modern coursers for the commencement of their diversion, viz. the beginning of winter;

[Sidenote: Ejusdem vs. 321.]

hiemis sub tempus aquosæ Incipe veloces catulos immittere pratis, Incipe cornipedes latos agitare per agros.

[Sidenote: Symmachi Epist. L. +ii.+ Ep. 77.]

From the view, then, here taken of the identity of these veloces catuli of Nemesian with the Vertragi of Arrian, we may conclude that greyhounds had been exported from the British Isles to some more southern state, Rome or Carthage, when the native poet of the latter place sung their praises in his Cynegeticon. And from the same source, a supply of these rare and valuable dogs was kept up at Rome, in the reign of Theodosius, by the instrumentality of Flavian. Inmates, therefore, of Celto-Britannic kennels, they must have been, on the twofold evidence of Nemesian and Symmachus, at this early period of our dark and semi-fabulous annals. Whether the dogs transported from these isles, as rarities, by Flavian, “solennium rerum largus, et novarum repertor,” to grace with their “incredible force and boldnesse,” the Quæstorate of his brother Symmachus at Rome, “quos prælusionis die ita Roma mirata est ut ferreis caveis putaret advectos,” are to be considered Irish or Scotch, according to modern distinctions, is quite unimportant; for probably at the period of the “oblatio” both were included under the same name. Indeed, it is well known, the inhabitant of Ireland bore the name of Scotus in the age of Claudian, who wrote, as well as Symmachus, in the reigns of Theodosius and Honorius,

[Sidenote: Claudian. de Laud. Stilic. L. +ii.+]

Me quoque vicinis pereuntem gentibus, inquit, Me juvit Stilico, totam cum Scotus lernen Movit, et infesto spumavit remige Tethys.

and again,

[Sidenote: Claudian. de +iv.+ Cons. Honor. vs. 32.]

maduerunt sanguine fuso Orcades: incaluit Pictorum sanguine Thule: Scotorum cumulos flevit glacialis Ierne.

[Sidenote: Arrian. de Venat. c. +vi.+]

[Sidenote: Ovid. Metam. L. +vii.+ 754.]

That these Canes Scotici were our Canes bellicosi seems highly improbable; for the latter had been known in Rome for several centuries, and could not have been deemed rarities in the days of Symmachus. I am inclined, then, to view them as high-bred Celtic hounds, εἴτε τοῦ δασέος γένους, εἴτε τοῦ ψιλοῦ, naturalized in these isles, and thence again exported to Rome by Flavian. From the earliest date of their existence, there have ever been two varieties of fleet Gallic hounds. As at this time we have greyhounds with rough, and others with smooth hair, so in the days of Arrian were they distinguished in the same way. In the sixth chapter of his Cynegeticus, on the colour of hounds, and its little importance to their merits, he observes that the hair, whether the dog be of the rough or smooth sort, should he fine, close, and soft:—by which I understand that, though the dog be what is termed wire-haired, the hair must not be coarse of texture, nor loose and shaggy. And from these sources we may derive the existing races of England, Scotland, and Ireland, without any necessary commixture with other blood, to account for the wire-haired skin. But the extraordinary sagacity of nose, superinduced on swiftness of foot, in certain varieties of modern Celtic hounds with rough coats, favours the notion of Buffon and others, that a cross has taken place with some alien, sagacious breed, at a remote period. Be this, however, as it may, we will consider the coarse-haired and more powerful varieties of Arrian’s Celt, the representatives of the wolf-hounds of Ireland and Scotland; and the fabulous Lælaps, “the goodly grewnd” of Golding, presented by Dian to Procris,

quem cum sua traderet illi Cynthia, currendo superabit, dixerat, omnes,—

a poetical picture of an individual, whose counterpart the author had seen, or heard of, in Celtic Gaul, or some Celtic colony, and whose eagerness in the wolf or fox chase is fully supported by his high-mettled descendants;

[Sidenote: Ejusdem vs. 772.]

Jamdudum vincula pugnat Exuere ipse sibi, colloque morantia tendit. Vix bene missus erat; nec jam poteramus, ubi esset, Scire; pedum calidus vestigia pulvis habebat: Ipse oculis ereptus erat. Non ocior illo Hasta, nec excussæ contorto verbere glandes, Nec Gortyniaco calamus levis exit ab arcu, &c.

[Sidenote: Golding’s Ovid’s Metam. Booke Seventh.]

He struggling for to wrest his necke already from the band Did stretch his collar. Scarcely had we let him off from hand, But that where Lælaps was become we could not understand; The print remained of his feete upon the parched sand, But he was clearely out of sight. Was never dart I trow, Nor pellet from enforced sling, nor shaft from Creetish bow, That flew more swift then he did run.

[Sidenote: Fleming’s British Animals. p. 12.]

The modern Scotch greyhound differs from the Irish in many respects. The former is rough and wiry, has a bearded snout, and ears half-pricked; the latter has short smooth hair and pendent ears; the Scotch is sharp, swift, and sagacious; the Irish dull-looking, harmless, indolent. The former is still common in North Britain, the latter is become exceedingly rare everywhere. From Mr. Lambert’s description of a modern specimen, the Irish wolf-greyhound seems to have degenerated much in size.

[Sidenote: Synopsis Animalium.]

[Sidenote: Arrian. de Venatione. c. +xv.+ +xvi.+ +xvii.+]

[Sidenote: De Venat. c. +xxiv.+]

The genuine Celtic greyhound, such as he is represented on the Arch of Constantine, is the “Canis venaticus Graius seu Græcus” of Ray;—“qui aspectu feras venatur, cursu velocissimus, formâ corporis et incessu decorus;”—a definition strictly harmonizing with Arrian’s more copious description, in c. +iii.+ c. +viii.+ sub fine, and other parts of his manual. The genuine quarry of this hound is the little fugacious hare; of which the historian of the Celtic chase supplies us with many illustrative anecdotes. That such was “the startled quarry” whereat “the gallant greyhounds,” Hormé, Bonnas, Cirras, were wont to “strain,” over the champaign fields of Cisalpine or Transalpine Gaul, or wherever the father of the leash slipped the “proavorum atavi” of the courser’s hound, can admit, I think, of no doubt. Indeed, the field-instructions of the Cynegeticus refer almost exclusively to hare-coursing: nor does it appear that the author himself, sensible, as he confessedly was, of the peculiar physical adaptation of the greyhound to the hare-course, was ever guilty of misapplying the dog to inappropriate quarry. The red-deer, however, is noticed by him, in his 23rd chapter, as a chase of the Vertragus, fraught with imminent danger, and needing high-mettled hounds. And, subsequently, the same animal is pursued with Scythian and Illyrian galloways on the open plains of Mœsia, Dacia, Scythia, and Illyria:—and, in the following chapter, we find the like diversions practised in Africa with barbs; whereby red and roe deer, and wild asses of extraordinary agility and endurance, are captured by mere boys—a style of chase resembling the Arabian onager-hunting of the elder Xenophon’s Anabasis. But whatever innovations upon the established field-sport of the mother country may have been effected in remote Celtic colonies, by the substitution of other larger quarry in lieu of the hare, the latter is alone to be viewed as the legitimate prey of the Vertragus.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PLATES AND VIGNETTES.

+The+ Emperor Trajan with hunters and a Celtic greyhound: Medallion from the Arch of Constantine. L’Antiquité Expliquée par Montfaucon. Tom. +iii.+ Liv. +iv.+ Tab. 175. Frontispiece.

Apollo and Diana—Twin-deities of the Chace: Silver coin of Delos. Goltzii Numism. Græc. Ins. T. +xviii.+ fol. +iii.+ Title-page.

The Author’s greyhound—ἄῤῥην κύων τῇ ἀληθείᾳ γενναῖος. Arrian. de Venat. c. +xxxii.+ Dedication page.

Procris presenting Lælaps and the fatal dart to Cephalus. Metamorphos. Ovid. L. +xv.+ Æneis formis ab Antonio Tempesta Florentino incisi. Back of do.

Ancient implements of writing;—picture from Herculaneum. Antiquités d’Herculanum gravées par F. A. David. Pl. +xxxiv.+ p. 50. Page 1

Hunter bearing spoils of the Chace: Ancient gem. Le Gemme Antiche figurate di Michel Angelo Causeo de la Chausse. +Cacciatore.+ T. 135. p. 54. 48

+Diana Aricina seu Nemorensis+: Ancient gem. Begeri Thesaur. Brandenb. T. +i.+ Gemmæ p. 64. 49

Diana in her usual hunting attire: Ancient gem of La Chausse. +Diana Cacciatrice.+ T. 61. p. 21. 49

+Ganymede.+ pierres gravées d’orléans. +Tome i.+ T. +xii.+ 50

Celtic greyhound: Brass coin of Cythnus. Goltzii N. G. Ins. T. +xviii.+ fol. +vii.+ 51

Celtic greyhound: Brass coin of Cythnus. Goltzii N. G. Ins. T. +xviii.+ fol. +viii.+ 54

Diana Venatrix: a beautiful Cameo of La Chausse. +Diana.+ T. 8. p. 4. 63

Equestrian Courser: Ancient gem of Maffei. Gemme Antiche. T. +iv.+ +Caccia.+ t. +lxxi.+ p. 116. 64

Celtic greyhound: Silver coin of Cythnus. Goltzii N. G. Ins. T. +xviii.+ fol. +ix.+ 65

Greyhound puppies—a groupe in white marble in the British Museum; from the ruins of Antoninus’s Villa at Monte Cagnolo 66

Celtic greyhound killing a hare: Ancient ring. Gorlæi Dactyliotheca. fol. 120. 67

+Diana Pergæa+: Silver coin of Perga in Pamphylia. Begeri Thesaur. Brandenb. T. +i.+ p. 506. 175

+Votum seu Donarium Dianæ Venatrici.+ In Hortis Mediceis. Admiranda Romanarum Antiquitatum ac Veteris Sculpturæ Vestigia, &c. à Petro Sancti Bartolo. Tab. 33. 176

Celtic greyhounds and deer from Vaillant. Montfaucon L’Antiq. Expliq. T. +iii.+ 177

Genii hunting from Maffei: Gemme Antiche. T. +iv.+ +Caccia di Genii.+ T. +liv.+ p. 86. 178

Diana Venatrix: Silver coin of Syracuse. Begeri Thesaur. Brandenb. T. +i.+ Numism. Siciliæ, p. 384. 179

Celtic greyhound: Silver coin of Cythnus. Goltzii N. G. Ins. T. +xviii.+ fol. +x.+ 306

+Funeralis Pompa.+ In Ædibus Barberinis. Admiranda Romanarum Antiquitatum ac Veteris Sculpturæ Vestigia, &c. à Petro Sancti Bartolo. Tab. 70. 307

Porter or Watch-dog—Canis Custos: Ancient gem of Maffei: Gemme Antiche. T. +iv.+ cane, t. +lxxxviii.+ p. 137. 315

[The Plates and Vignettes are executed by Messrs. Day and Haghe, Lithographers to the King, 17, Gate Street, Lincoln’s Inn Fields.]

BIBLIOTHECA CYNEGETICA.

Ὅτι μὲν οὖν καὶ ἑτέροις ὑπὲρ τούτων ἐσπούδασται, καλῶς οἶδα ἐγὼ δὲ ἐμαυτῷ ταῦτα, ὅσα οἷον τε ἦν, ἀθροίσας, καὶ περιβαλὼν αὐτοῖς τὴν συνήθη λέξιν, κειμήλιον οὐκ ἀσπούδαστον ἐκπονῆσαι πεπίστευκα. Εἰ δέ τῳ καὶ ἄλλῳ φανεῖται ταῦτα λυσιτελῆ, χρήσθω αὐτοῖς ὅτῳ δὲ οὐ φανεῖται, ἐάτω τῷ πατρὶ θάλπειν τε καὶ περιέπειν οὐ γὰρ πάντα πᾶσι καλὰ, οὐδὲ ἄξια δοκεῖ σπουδάσαι πᾶσι πάντα.